SALT LAKE CITY – Utahns who wish to become dentists can now get the necessary training without leaving the state.
Ground was broken Friday on the Ray and Tye Noorda Oral Health Education Building, which will be an 80,000 square-foot state of the art lab and classroom facility with a dental clinic.
Doctor Rena D’Souza will be the first dean of the University of Utah School of Dentistry in the new building.
“It feels very special, and I must add that the eyes of the nation are upon us because this is the first school to open in 25 years that is part of a major academic health center,” she said.
The new facility is expected to cost about $36.5 million and be finished in December of 2014. The dental school will begin with a class of 20 students and will increase in size in the coming years. The Doctor of Dental Surgery program was approved in August of 2012, and it replaces the Regional Dental Education Program at the school.
